Debian (Ports) Sid on Wii U

by: linux-wiiu.org

Publication date: 2023-10-06

Topics: Linux, Wii U, PowerPC, Debian, Nintendo

Language: English

Item Size: 2.0G

This is a disk image of Debian (ports) Sid for Wii U (PowerPC 32bit BE) I did.

It has ssh, btop, hwinfo, neofetch, apache2, php8.2, cpufetch, up and running on the system.

Its based from the unofficial ports mirror. Since big endian power pc has been unsupported for a few years ago. It uses the same Wii U 4.19.x kernel as the Wii U Gentoo. the latest kernel the module/driver for the Wii LAN adaptor (asix.ko) is not well built for the 4.19.287 (mid-2023) kernel.

You will need a Wii U with custom firmware, like Tiramisu. As well have the fw.img and dtbImage.wiiu files on the root of your SD card (In the Wii U SDHC Slot):

https://archive.org/download/debian-sid-on-wii-u/Needed-boot-files-for-wii-u-linux-nov-2022.7z

To log in:

USER: wiiu (has sudo access)

PASS: Password

It is compressed as a img.xz file. You can use Gnome disk utility on Ubuntu to decompress and write to a USB storage device at the same time. The OS runs of of the USB drive (its not installed to internal storage or SDHC slot). If you have Tiramisu CFW, You can boot straight into Linux by holding down the B button on the Wii U Gamepad and selecting the fw.img payload. If you use Haxchi, you have to go to the homebrew launcher to boot the fw.img.

This is Linux kernel files needed to boot this image:

https://archive.org/download/arch-linux-for-wii-u/Linux-Kernel-4.19.307-March-2024-for-Wii-U.7z

If you need to bring up the Wii LAN adaptor, you can load the driver (with right kernel installed) by:

sudo modprobe asix

As well bring up the interface by:

sudo ifconfig enx9ce63574d56d up

Update (October 29th 2023):

I created a new image with a fixed .bashrc file for the wiiu user where some paths where not set.
I also updated the packages while I was at it.

Update (January 29th 2024): I updated the packages further and also added the program Aptitude.

Update (March 22nd 2024):

New image created with updates.
Plus Rustic Compiler with demo now installed and cpufetch as well.
Aptitude and links where removed due to apt issues.

Update (August 2nd 2024):

Disk image has been updated.
With Aptitude & Links now reinstalled.
There is a netup.sh script in the home directory you run under sudo to help connect to the internet (since DHCP still does not work). Edit that script to match your network before running.
Fixed /etc/resolv.conf DNS config file as well. For some reason it was pointing to the Rogers ISP (only works if your with them). Now pointing to CIRA Canadian Shield DNS (there protected system. Has malware/spam blocking, but no censorship beyond that).
Also updated motd, so now instead of outputting lscpu, its cpufetch (Wii U port).

Update (August 5th 2024):

Installed Debian popularity contest statistic package. To show that there are still PowerPC ISA users along with the packages used for PPC.
If you worried about privacy, you can uninstall it by: sudo apt purge popularity-contest
Updated rust compiler, run apt update.
Added NTP configuration for timesyncd. Points to Gov of Canada at NTP server #1 and Gov of Japan as NTP server #2.
Apt was updated to new redesign (the same one used in Ubuntu 24.10).

Sources:

https://packages.debian.org/stable/tasks/
http://deb.debian.org/debian-ports/
https://gist.github.com/varqox/42e213b6b2dde2b636ef
https://akhileshmoghe.github.io/_post/linux/debian_minimal_rootfs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKwNxsFMx9s
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:PPC64/Installation/System
https://archive.org/details/wii-u-ubuntu-16.10-cli
https://archive.org/details/debian-sid-for-ps3
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-linux-apache-mariadb-php-lamp-stack-on-debian-11
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/617927/why-ping-works-without-capability-and-setuid
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3140478/fatal-module-not-found-error-using-modprobe
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/225845/how-do-i-configure-modprobe-to-find-my-module
https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/centos-111/network-interface-is-not-shown-in-ifconfig-command-4175577340/
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:PPC64/Installation/Networking
https://gitlab.com/linux-wiiu/linux-wiiu
https://gitlab.com/linux-wiiu/linux-wiiu/-/jobs/artifacts/rewrite-4.19/browse?job=linux-build-modular
https://wiki.linux-wiiu.org/wiki/Kernel/Building_kernel
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/50602/cant-ifdown-eth0-main-interface
https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/centos-111/network-interface-is-not-shown-in-ifconfig-command-4175577340/
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/269159/problem-of-cant-set-locale-make-sure-lc-and-lang-are-correct
https://superuser.com/questions/570082/in-etc-resolv-conf-what-exactly-does-the-search-configuration-option-do
https://popcon.debian.org/
https://nrc.canada.ca/en/certifications-evaluations-standards/canadas-official-time/network-time-protocol-ntp
https://www.nict.go.jp/en/sts/ntp.html
https://jjy.nict.go.jp/tsp/PubNtp/index-e.html